SUV crashes into house

By Phil Anderson

Ward said the man who lives in the home told him he had just gone to the garage moments before the vehicle came crashing through the wall.The driver of the vehicle -- identified as the daughter-in-law of the home's residents -- was taken to a Topeka hospital by American Medical Response ambulance for observation. Police said her injuries weren't believed to be serious.The vehicle left rubber marks as it sped west up the driveway, over a chain-link fence and into the front of the home, going through the living room and coming to rest with its front end in the kitchen.No other injuries were reported, including to two people who were inside the home at the time of the accident.Ward then looked across the street and saw that a Land Rover Discovery sport utility vehicle had crashed through the front of his neighbor's one-story home at 3521 S.E. Adams.Upon their arrival on the scene, police and fire crews found the vehicle was about 10 feet inside the residence, facing southwest. The vehicle left skid marks in the driveway adjacent to S.E. Adams before it ran over four steel chain-link fence posts in the home's front yard, then crashed into the home.At first, he said, he thought it was his wife hitting her car's brakes after she had left the residence, but when he looked outside, he saw she was fine.Alan Ward was in his southeast Topeka home Thursday morning when he said he heard a loud screech outside.Police at the scene said the vehicle had been backing east out of the driveway onto the 3500 block of S.E. Adams when it was placed into drive and suddenly surged forward.THE CAPITAL-JOURNALThe home sustained extensive damage to its east, or front, side, as the vehicle took out the home's front door and a section of the wall with windows.The man's wife, meanwhile, was sitting at the kitchen table, Ward said. The vehicle crashed into the table, he said, and missed the woman by about 3 feet."Thank God everyone's all right," Ward said. "In all of this, the only thing that counts is I get to see my neighbors again."As Topeka police and fire crews investigated the accident, Ward spoke with a man who lives in the home, grateful he was unharmed.No serious injuries were reported in the accident, which was reported about 7:45 a.m. Thursday.Phil Anderson can be reached at (785) 295-1195 or phil.anderson@cjonline.com.Topeka police Cpl. Louis Cortez said that the residents' daughter- in-law had been at the home moments before the crash to pick up an item and was preparing to leave in the sport utility vehicle."As she was backing out," Cortez said, "she put the car in drive and somehow, it just took off."

Phil Anderson can be reached at (785) 295-1195 or phil.anderson@cjonline.com.